====== Trade Envoys ======
===== Initial Brief =====

House Esteban is looking to recruit competent travelers for an exploratory voyage across to seas to the Philosophy of Seluga. Diplomatic and traveling experience welcome.

===== PCs =====

  * [[user:4denthusiast:pc:Doublethink Stingelhelm]] - Andrew
  * Joachim - Luke

===== Summary =====

Doublethink and Joachim are shown to the parlour of Flavia Taan, a wealthy Shaper of Esteban who was once the Kaiser of the House and has recently been purchasing a great deal of land in Telemere and on the outskirts of the city. She welcomes them and explains that she is funding the expedition to the Philosophy of Seluga so that she can initiate trade with them. She has a valuable cache of Shaped items and is keen to exchange them for goods from Seluga, since this is a new opportunity to increase her wealth.

However, they require somebody capable of sailing to reach Seluga safely. Fortunately, Flavia has employed Ommas, a seafaring necromancer who had [[resources:adventure:a_place_for_all_things|previously worked with Rastaban citizens]]. Unfortunately, Ommas has not arrived to the briefing, having spent the previous night bar-hopping in the Barrens. The party search the Barrens for him, and eventually discover a suspiciously large sack being carried from the back of a pub where Ommas was last seen.

The people carrying the sack and refuse to hand the contents of the bag over, claiming that it's a sack of potatoes. The sack of potatoes groans. The party decide that this was probably a lie. After knocking the criminals unconscious and turning them over to the local authorities ("That's Kilben!" cries a local Thief Laird, who is something of a rival gang leader to one of the kidnappers), they find a bleary-eyed, hungover Ommas tied up in the sack, having been attacked towards the end of his pub crawl the night before. As they escort him back to Flavia's estate, they are stopped by Seneschal Lestwick, who attempts to bribe them into poisoning Flavia on behalf of the "true head of House Esteban". Lestwick also implies that they were responsible for Ommas's kidnapping, which does not endear the party to them.

Once reunited with Flavia, the party are shown to her warehouse in the Wastes, where she has been Shaping a boat made of marble. However, in order to leave Rastaban, they will need to open the extremely disused gate blocking the river. They find that it is overgrown with Connection entities and are forced to destroy them (with the exception of the unkillable Oversharer who continues narrating their life story as the party set sail). Doublethink asks the crew to swear an oath forbidding them from revealing the secrets of the city, specifically the Shroud and the existence of Ichor. Joachim instinctively resists, but the power of the Embrace used to seal this oath eventually overcomes this resistance. 

After navigating a dangerous patch of choppy waters, hidden reefs and whirlpools, the party settles down on deck to eat with Flavia, Ommas and Lestwick, the latter of whom is in disguise but makes themself known to the party. Flavia at this point reveals more of her plan: she intends to take advantage of the current food shortage by purchasing the means to set up her own farm. As Flavia leaves the group to repair the boat, Lestwick implies that the party should make their attempt to poison her, but they refuse. In addition, Ommas privately expresses a wish to see Lestwick thrown overboard for their role in his kidnapping.

The boat's progression to Seluga is halted by the appearance of a kraken which launches sea creatures at the party until defeated. Ommas's eyes light up and he spends some time hacking at the dying creature before reanimating it at the front of the boat to serve as a better steering system.

Docking at the port town Borthe in Seluga, the party takes some of Flavia's collection to a marketplace where they encounter a seed merchant, a tool crafter and a farmer. They learn that in Seluga, people are assigned to their roles by the Conclave who rule the nation, which apparently keeps society running with perfect efficiency. However, the tool crafter expresses a desire to work as a farmer instead (a highly illegal act), and the party agrees to smuggle them out of Seluga in exchange for some of the farming equipment that they have crafted. The farmer is offered a tapestry which writes a person's legacy into it when touched with blood, and they agree to send a group of people from their guild to Rastaban. The seed merchant drives a hard bargain and demands secrets in exchange for some of their more valuable wares -- saffron and tomatoes are highlighted as delicious meal components -- but they settle for a music box and a Shaped weapon in exchange for wheat, potatoes and "milk pods" used to make cheese.

Returning to the boat with the disguised tool crafter, the party set sail back to Rastaban. However, their route through a archipelago brings them into contact with a group of pirates who demand a tithe. Doublethink stashes the seeds in his Shadow Safe which triggers a fight -- the pirates make off some farming tools and a sample of cheese but the party manage to protect the rest of the goods and decide that it's not worth chasing after the stolen items.

After surviving an oddly tea-scented Conflict storm, the party eventually see Rastaban in the distance. However, they also hear a scuffle elsewhere on the boat. Upon investigating, they find Lestwick and their allies attacking Flavia, who has assumed a defensive marble statue form thanks to her protective Shaped armour. Lestwick explains that if the party wasn't going to stop Flavia, they would -- and that they plan to take the farming supplies to their mistress instead. Fighting back Lestwick, the party succeeds in knocking them unconscious, and after being released by her armour, Flavia asks why she was betrayed.

"They wanted your stuff," Doublethink explains... before realising that he just violated his vow to the Shroud to never reveal a secret, and that as a consequence for this, he cannot retrieve the seeds from his Shadow Safe. Oops.

===== Debrief =====

Doublethink heals Lestwick and tries to convince them to declare that their motives should not be kept secret. Lestwick refuses and is knocked out again. Doublethink sheepishly admits to Flavia that there may be a problem with acquiring some of her goods until he gets back into the good graces of the Shroud.

Upon arrival in Rastaban, Flavia invites Doublethink to her "meditation room" where he can stay until he can regain access to his Might. It looks a lot like a dungeon cell. Joachim is also invited, and the two spend a few weeks waiting for Doublethink to repair his relationship with the Shroud enough to retrieve the seeds. Flavia is satisfied with this and releases them.

Joachim asks to be involved in Flavia's new farming business, which she gladly welcomes him into. Meanwhile, Doublethink checks in on Kilben, the Thief Laird that he handed over and is told that he has been "dealt with". He also finds that Lestwick appears to have spent some time in the meditation room adjacent to Doublethink's, and to the best of anyone's knowledge, they are still in there.

===== Consequences =====

Doublethink:
  * 5 favour (4 from Flavia and 1 from the Thief Laird he handed Kilben to)
  * A Shroud artefact from Flavia's collection. When worn, it makes the wearer appear inconspicuous; this will be unlikely to misdirect attention if the wearer is somewhere they clearly shouldn't be, but will allow them to easily blend into a crowd.

Joachim:
  * 8 favour (4 from Flavia, doubled by Joachim's BOOOOOOON)
  * Affiliation: Farmer's Guild (Rank 1: Yeoman)

Rastaban:
  * The Farmer's Guild has been established. Its head is Grand Overseer Flavia Taan, who now owns several plots of farmland around the city.

{{tag>"trade envoys" adventure doublethink_stingelhelm}}